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The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code Paperback – Illustrated, July 16, 2013

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,023 ratings

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From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA.

In
The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In The Violinist's Thumb, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA.

There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK's bronze skin (it wasn't a tan) to Einstein's genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans bred thousands of years more recently than any of us would feel comfortable thinking. They can even allow some people, because of the exceptional flexibility of their thumbs and fingers, to become truly singular violinists.

Kean's vibrant storytelling once again makes science entertaining, explaining human history and whimsy while showing how DNA will influence our species' future.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"As he did in his debut bestseller, The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean educates readers about a facet of science with wonderfully witty prose and enthralling anecdotes....Kean's thoughtful, humorous book is a joy to read." -- Publishers Weekly

"A science journalist with a flair for words...[Kean's] language is fluid and accessible, even for the science-challenged." -- Barbara Hoffert,
Library Journal

"Kean is one of America's smartest and most charming science writers, and his new book could be perfect for summer readers who prefer some substance with their fun." -- Michael Schaub,
National Public Radio

"The DNA molecule, Kean asserts, is the 'grand narrative of human existence'-and he boldly sets out to tell the tale, not only explaining genetics and its scientific history but linking Mendel's pea shoots to the evolution of early humans....He's crafted a lively read packed with unforgettable details." -- Sarah Zhang,
Discover

"Sam Kean is the best science teacher you never had...
a slew of intriguing tales, which Kean spins in light, witty prose while also placing them in a broader scientific context." -- Keith Staskiewicz, Entertainment Weekly

"Sam Kean has started to make a habit of taking scientific subjects that inhabit the outskirts of the popular imagination and reintroducing them with healthy doses of history and humanity....Anyone reading this fine book could be excused for jolting upright...with wide-eyed amazement." -- Jesse Singal,
Boston Globe

"[Kean] writes with a humor and humanity that make him poised to become the next Brian Greene, maybe, or Oliver Sacks-explaining small corners of the universe one case study at a time." -- Monica Hesse,
Washington Post

"
The Violinist's Thumb delivers the same humor and insight--and delightful anecdotes--about DNA that Kean used to make the periodic table of the elements entertaining in his New York Times bestselling debut The Disappearing Spoon." -- Brooklyn Daily Eagle

About the Author

Sam Kean is the New York Times bestselling author of Caesar's Last Breath, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Disappearing Spoon, and The Violinist's Thumb, all of which were also named Amazon top science books of the year.

The Disappearing Spoon was a runner-up for the Royal Society of London's book of the year for 2010, and The Violinist's Thumb and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons were nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2013 and 2015, as well as the AAAS/Subaru SB&F prize.

His work has appeared in the
Best American Nature and Science Writing, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Psychology Today, Slate, Mental Floss, and other publications, and he has been featured on NPR's "Radiolab," "All Things Considered," and "Fresh Air."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (July 16, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316182338
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316182331
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.13 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,023 ratings

About the author

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Sam Kean
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Official bio: Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid, and now he's a writer in Washington, D.C. His new book is The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. His first two books, The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist's Thumb were national bestsellers, and both were named an Amazon "Top 5" science books of the year. The Disappearing Spoon was nominated by the Royal Society for one of the top science books of 2010, while The Violinist's Thumb was a finalist for PEN's literary science writing award. His work has also been featured on "Radiolab" and NPR's "All Things Considered," among other shows. You can follow him via Twitter @sam_kean, and read excerpts at http://www.samkean.com.

(un)Official bio: Sam Kean gets called Sean at least once a month. He grew up in South Dakota, which means more to him than it probably should. He's a fast reader but a very slow eater. He went to college in Minnesota and studied physics and English. At night, he sometimes comes down with something called "sleep paralysis," which is the opposite of sleepwalking. Right now, he lives in Washington, D.C., where he earned a master's degree in library science that he will probably never use. He feels very strongly that open-faced sandwiches are superior to regular ones.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,023 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate the accessible science content and storytelling that connects it to history and anthropology. The stories are described as fascinating and fantastical, with human characters. Readers describe the journey into genetics as amazing and an excellent overview of the history of DNA and genetic research.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

107 customers mention "Readability"104 positive3 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They say it's an intelligent read that expands knowledge and is suitable for everyone. The author is described as a good writer who does his homework.

"...But a caution. Sean writes with verve but one needs to read s-l-o-w-ly to integrate what may be new information to most of us...." Read more

"...but again, Kean mostly succeeds in making some very complex science easy to understand; what's more, Kean's clever and very down to earth use of..." Read more

"...Stylistically, Sam Kean is a cool wit, expertly using analogies in clever and humorous ways to make his fine scientific points...." Read more

"...Great writing. 2. Kean does tend to give the science the short shrift occasionally...." Read more

104 customers mention "Enjoyment"101 positive3 negative

Customers find the book engaging and compelling. They appreciate the author's wry humor and easy-to-understand language. The story is fascinating and worth hearing, even if it doesn't provide clear explanations of DNA.

"...After 401 engaging pages, the reader will know enough about genetics today to make much better informed decisions on issues such as Genetically..." Read more

"...Sam Kean is a cool wit, expertly using analogies in clever and humorous ways to make his fine scientific points...." Read more

"...In spite of this spectacular ignorance, Kean managed, by sheer verbal firepower, to actually teach me a little about DNA...." Read more

"...This really sucks the reader in...." Read more

89 customers mention "Information content"82 positive7 negative

Customers find the book's information engaging and accessible. They appreciate the author's skill in making complex topics like genetics understandable. The stories behind scientific discoveries allow readers to appreciate the work and insights. Overall, readers describe the book as an educational yet enjoyable read that makes science accessible.

"...All told, we get 16 information packed, anecdote jammed, story-intense chapters such as Chapter 7, "The Machiavelli Microbe: How Much of Human..." Read more

"...And he made it exciting because he told intriguing, sometimes absurd, and amusing stories about the scientists involved in the creation and..." Read more

"...Kean managed, by sheer verbal firepower, to actually teach me a little about DNA...." Read more

"...the very human stories of discoverers or living examples of the scientific principles being described. This really sucks the reader in...." Read more

73 customers mention "Storytelling"71 positive2 negative

Customers find the stories fascinating and interesting. They appreciate the well-chosen variety of stories along a common theme, including human stories of discoverers and living examples. The stories cover a wide range of topics, making the book hard to put down.

"...In "The Violinist's Thumb," Sam Kean, that master of story-telling and suspense, begins where we need to begin in understanding the wrong alleys,..." Read more

"...blueprint of all that lives and the mechanism of heredity, DNA tells the story of life (and the history of life), from the smallest, simplest microbe..." Read more

"...Both make science clear and entertaining from different angles—Einstein as an insider teaching us about what he has found out and thought about and..." Read more

"...When Kean turns to explaining how this science can help us better understand the past, and even some specific personages, I picked up the pace...." Read more

57 customers mention "Interest in genetics"57 positive0 negative

Customers find the book an engaging journey into the world of genetics. It provides an excellent overview of the history of DNA and genetic research. The author explains the science behind DNA in clear, bite-sized chunks while keeping humor. The book connects the science to anthropology, history, weather, and migration patterns. The human stories behind the science are revealed.

"...the wrong alleys, dead-ends, controversies, and cutting edge discoveries in genetics...." Read more

"...Kean divides his tome into four parts. The first part explores the basics of DNA and heredity, and the earliest discoveries thereof...." Read more

"...But is wasn't. It was interesting enough about genetics and how some people are better at certain things or predisposed for certain careers...." Read more

"...This is no dry text on biochemistry, but a fascinating history of the discovery of DNA and its role in genetics, meeting many interesting, and some..." Read more

16 customers mention "Character development"16 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the character development in the book. They find the characters interesting from history, with their motivations and personalities. The book covers DNA but also includes side stories about human beings, animals, cells, and who we are. Readers appreciate the journey through human nature and the human side of great discoveries.

"...are the quirky footnotes to history that remind you that history is about real people...." Read more

"...This book focused on genetics and different unique traits that allowed for people to be able to survive and thrive under random conditions...." Read more

"...There's more of these gems, plus speculation on why famous historical figures (Paganini in the title) had certain characteristics...." Read more

"...p, helping us succeed at various tasks and develop high levels of accomplishment is fascinating...." Read more

12 customers mention "Pacing"6 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed views on the pacing of the book. Some find it humorous and disturbing, teaching them about the complexity of one cell and the intricacies of the structure of DNA. Others find it tedious to slog through, simplistic, and not written for newbies to genetics and DNA study. Transitions are not immediately clear, and the book is more of a textbook format than an educational read.

"...The fourth and final part of the book gets into the intricacies of the structure of DNA, and how our unraveling these intricacies..." Read more

"...But also tedious to slog through to find anything about the violinist at all...." Read more

"...We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made. To ignore the Designer and marvel only at the design is misdirected praise...." Read more

"This isn't written for newbies (like me) to the study of genetics and DNA. The writer presumes the reader knows the basics already...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2013
    It's biology's turn again at being the fastest-developing, most significant science for our lives, say some knowledgable people. Genetics is at the center of quite amazing break-throughs in our understanding of me, you, Paginini, and the aliens in our cells.

    Aliens? Yep. Ancient retroviruses, whose DNA, that genetic finger-print of identity, is not the same as our DNA in our cells' nucleus. What's with these ancient retroviruses? How did they invade us? Did we invade them? Should we try to get them out? Modify if we can our own DNA? Splice our genes with other DNA's? What might this mean for my health? My kids' well-being? For us and the future, from choices we are making today? And we are, very much so, in genetic research.

    In "The Violinist's Thumb," Sam Kean, that master of story-telling and suspense, begins where we need to begin in understanding the wrong alleys, dead-ends, controversies, and cutting edge discoveries in genetics. There are four parts: I: A, G, T and You: How to Read a Genetic Score; II: Our Animal Past: Making Things that Crawl and Frolic and Kill; III: Genes and Geniuses: How Humans Became All Too Human; and IV: The Oracle of DNA: Genetics in the Past, Present, and Futue. All told, we get 16 information packed, anecdote jammed, story-intense chapters such as Chapter 7, "The Machiavelli Microbe: How Much of Human DNA is Actually Human?" and Chapter 14:" Three Billion Little Pieces: Why Don't Humans Have More Genes than Other Species?" (We actually have fewer than do some species of tobacco plants.)

    Each chapter asks an important question and laudably, Kean answers it. After 401 engaging pages, the reader will know enough about genetics today to make much better informed decisions on issues such as Genetically Modified Organisms; to learn with deeper understanding and pleasure---and concern---as the science news adds another part of this amazing story; to confab pleasantly with knowledgable friends, and to set straight purveyors of genetic nonsense.

    But a caution. Sean writes with verve but one needs to read s-l-o-w-ly to integrate what may be new information to most of us. For example (p. 212): "One problem with paleogenetics is that DNA is thermodynamically unstable. Over time, C chemically degrades into T, and G degrades into A, so paleogeneticists can't always believe what they read in ancient samples." By p. 212, the reader should be OK with C,T,G, and A but the sentence still deserves to be thought about rather than gulped. Me, I like a book that is so information-rich it lasts a while and that exercises those little grey cells. Those looking for a one-night mental marshmallow might look else where. Yet, there is nothing inaccssible and Kean explains what's going on with topics such as the thermodynamics of dino DNA.

    Another caution: well, we don't get to the violinist's thumb until p. 255. Be patient: it's there and a good part of the story, too.

    So: buy this book, borrow it, rent it, or Kindle it. Whatever way, many of us are likely to delight in reading it and we will be better for the deeper knowledge beneath the sound-bytes.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2012
    *A full summary of this book is available here: An Executive Summary of Sam Kean's 'The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code'

    The main argument: In a sense the story of DNA has two strands. On the one hand, as the blueprint of all that lives and the mechanism of heredity, DNA tells the story of life (and the history of life), from the smallest, simplest microbe, to we human beings, who have managed to figure all of this out. Of course, there is still much about DNA that we don't know. But given that we didn't even know of its existence until a lowly Swiss physician and biologist named Friedrich Miescher stumbled upon it in the 1860's, you have to admit we've come a long way in such a short time. And this is just where the second strand of the story of DNA begins: the story of our unraveling the mystery. While perhaps not as grandiose as the story of life itself, this detective story is significant in its own right, for it has transformed how we understand all that lives--including ourselves. This is especially the case given that the latest chapters in this story have revealed not only our own genomic blueprint, but the (deeply daunting) fact that we have the power to change this blueprint and thus became the masters of our own future as a species. While each of the strands of the story of DNA could fill a book in their own right (if not several), the author Sam Kean has managed to weave the two together and fit them both in his new book `The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code'. Kean's project may seem like a particularly tall task, but he manages to pull it off by way of focusing in on only the main (and/or juiciest) moments and characters throughout.

    Kean divides his tome into four parts. The first part explores the basics of DNA and heredity, and the earliest discoveries thereof. Here we are introduced to the aforementioned Miescher, as well as Gregor Mendel, who teased out the basic laws of heredity using his famed peas. We also learn of Thomas Hunt Morgan and his team of eccentric lab assistants who managed to marry Mendelism (genetics) with Darwinism (evolution by natural selection) to develop the modern evolutionary synthesis, which stands as the main pillar of modern biology. We also learn about genetic mutations and how these glitches are the key to evolution. Sadly, these glitches also have their downside, which we witness through the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who had the terrible misfortune of being in the blast area of both of the nuclear bombs that the US dropped on Japan at the end of WWII.

    Part II of the book explores DNA's role in the beginnings and evolution of life. In particular, Kean focuses on the major leaps in evolution, from the first microbes, to microbes with complex internal specialization, to multi-celled organisms with specialized cells (which includes all plants and animals), to mammals, to primates, to us. All of this may sound very technical, but Kean manages to keep the story lively with tales of northern seafarers encountering angry polar bears (and learning that biting into their innards can be just as deadly as them biting into yours), and Soviet scientists embarking on a project to create humanzees (yes, that's a cross between a human and a chimpanzee).

    Part III of the book turns to human DNA in particular, and what sets us apart as a species. Here we learn how our DNA reveals that our species has passed through several genetic bottlenecks--meaning there have been numerous occasions where our numbers have dwindled to near-extinction levels, with the latest bottleneck occurring as little as 70,000 years ago. This has left us with far less genetic diversity than most other species, including our closest living relatives, the chimps (compared to whom we also have two less chromosomes). We also learn about some of the genes that have contributed to the evolution of our big brains--the one thing that separates us most as a species. Finally, we learn about the role that DNA plays in our peculiar attraction to art.

    The fourth and final part of the book gets into the intricacies of the structure of DNA, and how our unraveling these intricacies (through the work of Watson and Crick, and the Human Genome Project) has allowed us to manipulate life forms. While these discoveries have opened up enormous opportunities, they have also led to some very poignant questions about just how we should be using this knowledge--especially when it comes to ourselves and our own species. As our knowledge of DNA increases (currently at a rate that exceeds Moore's Law) these questions will only become more pressing moving forward.

    Given the remarkably wide range of his subject matter, Kean's work runs the risk of becoming as tangled and sprawling as a string of DNA. However, the author does manage to keep the sprawl to a minimum (for the most part). Also, the science does get a bit thorny at times (the odd visual would have helped), but again, Kean mostly succeeds in making some very complex science easy to understand; what's more, Kean's clever and very down to earth use of language adds some nice flavor to the dish. A full summary of the book is available here: An Executive Summary of Sam Kean's 'The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code'
    44 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Navneet Choudhary
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product
    Reviewed in India on March 18, 2019
    Every biology students should read this.
  • Jose Luis Casillas
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
    Reviewed in Mexico on January 23, 2017
    Esta obra es excelente y fácil de entender aún para los que no conocen tanto sobre el ADN y términos biológicos. Recomendable 100%
  • Ms Vivien E Payne
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and easy to read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2017
    This is a fascinating and easy to read history and account of the study of genetics, written with a down to earth style and with a wonderful sense of humour. I would recommend it to anyone interested in this subject. I really enjoyed it. And you don't need a degree to understand it, either!
  • qdalgado
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
    Reviewed in Canada on September 13, 2016
    I really didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book, other than possibly learning a thing or two. It's as informative as it is entertaining, and full of surprises.
  • MaCl
    5.0 out of 5 stars A good read on the history...
    Reviewed in Germany on November 26, 2012
    ... of genetics: funny and witty. I learned a lot of stuff which I had not known before, e.g. the Y-Chromosome and the differences between the genetics of men and women. Men really are the weaker gender!